


fire beneath our feet

by knightswatch



Series: fire and icing [1]
Category: Free!
Genre: Dense Boys, Fluff, Getting Together, Hockey, M/M, Polyamory, figure skating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 02:38:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4902334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightswatch/pseuds/knightswatch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“One, you can't have dibs on a person,” he held a finger up to illustrate his point, “two, he's in my class, so I still knew him before you did.”</p><p>“And you still haven't managed to get a date,” Rin snapped triumphantly. Sousuke flushed, glancing away.</p><p>“Not all of us try asking people out the day we meet them, Rin,” he snorted, pushing his hand back through his hair. “And before you even suggest it we're not having a throwdown over this.”</p><p>“Fine. What do you suggest?” Rin responded archly, not denying that he probably would have suggested exactly that. Sousuke paused, glancing away and frowning.</p><p>“We should probably just ask him after the game,” he sounded reluctant, and Rin felt bad in a distant sort of way. “Who he'd rather go out with.”</p><p>“Whoever doesn't get picked leaves it alone,” Rin agreed with a nod, holding his fist out. Sousuke sighed, tapping their knuckles together before grinning slowly.</p><p>“A good friend would just give it up and let me have a shot.”</p><p>“Too bad you don't have any of those,” Rin rolled his eyes in response, giving Sousuke's shoulder a shove</p>
            </blockquote>





	fire beneath our feet

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be for Rintori week, but things got quickly out of hand.

Rin wasn't really interested in figure skating as a sport-- mostly because it seemed like all the easy parts of hockey and spangly outfits stuck in the practice slot before the team's and most of the time he was simply stuck roping Momo and Seijuurou away from drooling over the girls leaving. Once that task was finished it was suicide drills and getting Haru to stop making cryptic statements about how Rei was still struggling with his skating because 'the ice didn't like him yet', and Momo talking to pucks as he deflected them.

He was surprised when he looked up from Momo and Rei seeing who could do better splits (fucking goalies could never be _normal_ could they?) to see a pair of unfamiliar faces watching them; both boys with light jackets and tight pants on-- one with silver hair and blue eyes, the other with blond hair and an overly animated manner of speech making coffee spill from the mug he had in his hands onto his sleeve. Rei paused in whatever he had been saying to Momo, probably about how beautiful his split was, to follow the trilling sound of the blond ones laughter, his eyes going wide before he promptly blew a skate and landed flat on the ice.

Makoto made a wailing sound of displeasure, and Rin swore to himself that if he didn't have the puck handling skills that he did there was no way he would still be on this team. Instead, he pushed himself over to the sideboards, feeling the smooth cut of ice under his skates, giving the pair of spectators a frown. The silver one looked up, his face blinking into a small smile, eyes crinkling at the corners and making Rin feel a little bad for looking intimidating in his full gear with a glare on his face.

“This is a closed practice, sorry,” he was surprised that he actually meant the apology, because the longer he had to look at him, the more obvious it was how cute silver-hair was. He had a little beauty mark under his eye, even brighter blue than they had looked from a distance, and looking up at Rin with a wide innocence.

“Oh! I'm sorry-- Nagisa-kun said you were usually finished by this time, so we were going to practice,” he lifted his hand with a smile, a pair of figure skates dangling from it and bumping together. His eyes drooped to the A stitched to Rin's jersey, tilting his head and smiling. “Do you think your captain would be okay with us just staying until you're done? I promise we're not stealing any plays from you-- right Nagisa-kun?”

He turned, elbowing his companion in the ribs slightly. Rin belatedly recognized Nagisa as someone who was constantly attached to Rei's elbow on campus and sighed a little, figuring the mix up in times was anything but an unintentional slip-up. Nagisa looked back at Rin with a wide grin stretching over his face, nodding with a giggle. “Of course not! No play stealing here.”

“It's fine, I guess. Just-- don't cause a distraction,” he leveled his glare at Nagisa rather than his friend, shaking his head. He glanced at the silver-haired one again and tried not to notice the way the cool air of the rink had made the tip of his nose pink.

“Thank you so much, um--” He paused, probably realizing he didn't have a name to actually thank. Rin leaned his elbow on the lip of the board, trying to still seem annoyed by the distraction and failing miserably.

“Rin Matsuoka,” he considered extending a hand to shake, but still had his gloves on and didn't really want to match them up with the boy's tiny fingers. Still, he nodded his head with a bright smile.

“Aiichirou Nitori,” there was a note of shyness in his voice, his hand reaching out without a sideways glance to pull Nagisa back from frantically waving at Rei, who was pretending to ignore him. “I promise we won't be any trouble to you.”

Rin gave Nagisa another skeptical look but shrugged and pushed off to skate away, listening to Seijuurou bark them all into a three-on-three, bumping his shoulder against Sousuke's as Momo positioned himself in the far net. Sousuke grunted, glancing over at the pair who had returned to chatting with one another. “What's up with that?”

Rin rolled his eyes, flicking his eyes to Rei lining himself up in the net behind them with a short laugh. “Butterfly's boyfriend wanted to watch him, apparently.”

“Which one is he dating?” He raised an eyebrow, but Rin didn't get a chance to answer before Seijuurou was lining up across from him for a face-off, Sousuke skating to the other side with the captain and Kazuki. 

The three-on-three was a slaughter for Rin's team, which Seijuurou should have seen coming when he put him, Haru and Makoto on the same side. He didn't seem annoyed by it at the end, dismissing practice with a wave of his hand and skating over toward the pair of figure skaters who had been cheering for both teams with fervor by the end with a grin on his face. Rin's stomach twisted, which he elected to openly ignore because there was no way he was jealous of Seijuurou being sleazy and trying to chat the pair of them up.

He lost Nagisa's attention almost immediately, gliding onto the ice with his skates already laced on, intercepting Rei on his way off the ice and prodding at his abundance of pads and gear with a laugh that Rin could hear even halfway across the ice. Ai remained seated, fidgeting slightly under the captain's protracted story about probably the last fight he'd gotten in during a game.

Rin sighed, pulling his helmet off and tucking it under his arm, skating back over to the same spot on the boards, angling himself so he bumped slightly into Seijuurou when he stopped. He glanced up, inclining his head back towards the bench. “Iwashimizu didn't stop to do his full stretches.”

Seijuurou blinked before pushing off without a second thought, already shouting on his way. Rin almost felt bad for ratting the poor kid out, but it faded quickly when he looked back at Ai and smiled. “Sorry, he's a pain.”

“Does he really get in that many fights?” He blinked his wide eyes owlishly and Rin rolled his eyes before nodding.

“He's a goon-- it's what he does,” Rin glanced down at the skates next to Ai's hip, undisturbed and clearly not on his feet, grinning slightly. “So you're going to practice, then?”

Ai's cheeks flushed, his hand resting on top of them protectively, glancing back towards Nagisa. “Well, I was _going_ to, until I discovered what we were really doing here.”

“And here I was hoping I'd get to see some fancy twirling moves,” Rin laughed softly to himself, grinning as Ai flushed just a little more, a small frown crossing his face.

“You're not one of those players who thinks figure skating is as easy as stepping on the ice, are you Matsuoka-senpai?” There was a little scolding in his tone and Rin shrugged, tugging his hair out of its small ponytail.

“I haven't really seen any that made me think otherwise,” he blinked when Ai immediately turned to lacing his skates on, his cheeks puffed out in a pout.

“Well take a seat then, I'll just have to show you,” he pushed himself up when they were on and Rin wanted to laugh at Ai's awkward attempt to climb over the boards like hockey players usually did. He managed to get both feet onto the ice without falling, at least, despite his short legs making it difficult. Rin laughed, pushing himself over the short wall easily, even without his usual momentum to help him swing over it.

Ai only looked slightly put out, digging in his jacket pocket and producing a cellphone, standing on his skates with easy balance as he pressed buttons until music started playing from the weak speaker, a soft piano track. Ai shrugged off the jacket, turning to the now empty ice and stretching his shoulders out, skating a few slow circles.

Rin watched him warm his legs up without comment, trying to ignore the fact that figure skating apparently built the same kind of defined ass that hockey did-- or at least had in Ai's case. The fact that he was basically wearing tights wasn't helping Rin focus on anything else either, really. Ai paused in the middle of the ice, taking an actual stance with both arms curved over his head, locking eyes with Rin before smiling slowly.

He wanted to deny the fact that when he actually started moving with purpose, dancing rather than throwing aimless twirls and jumps like Rin had expected him to do, it was actually breathtaking in a way that Rin wasn't prepared for. He was surprisingly agile, even on ice that had been sliced and scored by two practices before him, moving his momentum forward and backward seamlessly, executing leaps with a careful precision that Rin could see building before he even sprang into the air, using the pick of his skate to push himself into the air and actually _flip_ his whole body into the air and land without breaking his momentum, or his skull.

Rin was forced to snap his mouth shut before Ai reached him again, rubbing the back of his neck with a slightly forced laugh. “Alright, you're pretty good.”

Ai laughed quietly at that, breathing heavily when he stopped, a grin crinkling his eyes. “I guess I'll have to see a game to find out if you are too.”

Rin blinked twice at that before laughing, nodding his head and pushing himself up, trying to ignore sweat had dried cold on his skin from sitting after practice to watch. Still, he pulled off his gloves and shrugged, snatching Ai's phone from the board and putting his number in before handing it back. “I'll get you a ticket then.”

 

Rin, true to his word, showed up with a single ticket for their season opening game, early for the next practice so he could catch Ai on the way out of his own. He had made sure to swipe one and not a pair from Seijuurou-- he didn't want Ai feeling like he was supposed to be bringing someone else along to a game where he was supposed to be watching Rin play.

Still, he didn't expect to see Ai walking out of the locker room with Sousuke already next to him, blinking in interest at whatever Sousuke was saying before he smiled and nodded his head. Rin could feel the heat rushing into his face, gritting his teeth tightly together when Sousuke lifted his head and raised an eyebrow at him. Ai looked up as well, a smile melting warm over his features as he waved. “Good afternoon, Matsuoka-senpai!”

He almost relaxed at Ai's excited chirp until he looked back up at Sousuke with the same smile, nodding his head eagerly, cheeks pink. “Um, thank you for helping me, Yamazaki-senpai.”

Rin was pretty sure he was going to have to fight Sousuke when they got back to their room. Still, he rubbed the back of his neck with a smile, holding the ticket out with a soft laugh. “Figured I'd drop this off for ya.”

“Oh!” His eyes lit up further as he took it, powder blue gloves that lacked actual fingers on his hands. He looked up at Rin and then back at Sousuke with a smile. “You're both on the team, right?”

He must have read some of the questioning glare that Rin gave Sousuke as confusion because he paused, squeezing one hand around the strap of his bag where it sliced across his chest. “Yamazaki-senpai is in my physical therapy seminar.”

“Yeah, I get to watch Rin's back on the ice,” Sousuke didn't seem nearly as bothered as Rin felt, slapping a hand on his shoulder and chuckling softly when Rin glared at him with less menace than he felt. “You'll get to see us both play, then.”

“How exciting,” the shine in Ai's eyes made it much more obvious how genuinely he meant that than just the squeak in his voice. Rin stole a glance at Sousuke, still smiling though the stupidly soft and open look on his best friend's face made him want to throttle him. It wasn't exactly a new desire, but competing over dates wasn't something the two of them had done before.

Ai's phone chirped from his pocket and he dug it out before biting his lip and shaking his head quickly. “I'm sorry-- I have to run, but I'll see both of you later!”

Ai took off at a jog without waiting for an answer from either of them, bag bouncing at his hip. Rin turned to regard Sousuke with a flat stare once he was gone.

“You know him,” he said slowly, aware that he had spent half the evening talking about getting the 'cute figure skating kid' to watch him play. Sousuke blinked, half a smile on his face before he shrugged.

“Wasn't sure which one you meant,” he answered evenly, clapping Rin's shoulder more gently this time. “It's not that big a deal, you baby.”

“I'm pretty sure I have dibs,” Rin grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. Sousuke frowned at that, turning and mirroring the motion.

“One, you can't have dibs on a person,” he held a finger up to illustrate his point, “two, he's in my class, so I still knew him before you did.”

“And you still haven't managed to get a date,” Rin snapped triumphantly. Sousuke flushed, glancing away.

“Not all of us try asking people out the day we meet them, Rin,” he snorted, pushing his hand back through his hair. “And before you even suggest it we're not having a throwdown over this.”

“Fine. What do you suggest?” Rin responded archly, not denying that he probably would have suggested exactly that. Sousuke paused, glancing away and frowning.

“We should probably just ask him after the game,” he sounded reluctant, and Rin felt bad in a distant sort of way. “Who he'd rather go out with.”

“Whoever doesn't get picked leaves it alone,” Rin agreed with a nod, holding his fist out. Sousuke sighed, tapping their knuckles together before grinning slowly.

“A good friend would just give it up and let me have a shot.”

“Too bad you don't have any of those,” Rin rolled his eyes in response, giving Sousuke's shoulder a shove. “C'mon, let's go practice.”

 

It wasn't that hard to pick Ai out of the crowd when Rin stepped onto the ice for the game, nudging his elbow back at Sousuke as they skated their first slow loops around the ice, picking up speed as the flashing lights painted color across the ice. Sousuke followed his nod and even with the low light and the plastic covering their faces, Rin could see him grin.

 

They won. Rin wasn't surprised. Something about the night had made him and Sousuke both play like savages, even when they were on different shifts. Rin almost managed a natural hat trick, ending up with an assist from a bored looking Haru on his third point. Still, every time he got a goal, Sousuke flopped weight warm and heavy over his back and bumped their helmets together like always and Rin laughed.

They won and Sousuke grabbed either side of his helmet and planted a kiss on the top of it while they were still caught in a piled hug of teammates-- like always.

He waited for Sousuke to finish changing, shrugging his gear bag on his shoulder before both of them stepped out to meet Ai. He wasn't surprised that the small figure skater was already in the hall outside the locker room, a grin on his face when they both walked out, color still high on his cheeks from excitement and cold air.

“You both did so well!” He beamed, breath coming in ecstatic puffs. Rin almost preened until he remembered the question looming heavy between the three of them. To his surprise, Sousuke cleared his throat first, reaching a hand out and catching Ai's elbow, flushing just a little.

“Um, we-- had something we had to ask you,” he glanced at Rin and then back to Ai, who looked up at them with his head tilted to the side. Sousuke coughed slightly before finding his voice again. “W- we both, um, want to date you.”

“Oh,” Ai blinked twice before smiling and nodding his head. “Okay, that sounds good. Do you want to get dinner then? Or maybe not since you just finished your game...”

“W- wait,” Rin shook his head hard, frowning. “What do you mean 'that sounds good'?”

“Dating you two,” Ai sounded like he was trying to explain something obvious before nodding his head again. “That sounds nice, I would like to.”

“B- both of us?” Sousuke sounded equally as confused as Rin felt, which was good. At least they both had no idea what was going on. Ai cocked his head, silver hair brushing across his eyes.

“Is that not what you were asking me?” He sounded even more confused than either of them, his brow furrowing. “The two of you are already together, so I figured that was how it would work out.”

“W- we aren't together!” Rin sputtered quickly, shaking his head and holding his hands out. Ai frowned harder, scratching the back of his head. Despite himself, he stole a glance at Sousuke and found him looking very carefully at the wall rather than either of them. 

“Oh,” Ai sounded-- disappointed? Rin looked back to find a tiny frown on his face. “Well, I suppose it works just as well starting all at once then.”

Ai was beaming, there was a small, shy smile on Sousuke's face, and Rin must have just cracked his head open on the ice because he nodded and reached out, tangling his fingers with Ai's and letting Sousuke drape a heavy arm over his shoulders. “Okay. Dinner then?”


End file.
